Freedom House joins with key civil society organizations to urge Ambassador Nikki Haley to ensure that U.S. engagement with the United Nations Human Rights Council advances universal values and our nation’s interests worldwide.

On Wednesday, April 26, 2017, Freedom House Executive Vice President Daniel Calingaert testified before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe on the subject of democracy and human rights abuses in Russia.

Freedom House analysis shows that the ability of civil society institutions to function without state restrictions has suffered a pronounced decline over this period. It is in particular the organizations that pursue politically sensitive objectives—human rights advocacy, democratic reform, or anticorruption measures—that are under threat.

The undersigned organisations condemn in the strongest possible terms today’s sentencing of Mehman Huseynov, Azerbaijani journalist and chairman of the country’s leading freedom of expression group, Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety, to two years in jail on defamation charges. He was taken into custody from the court room, without being allowed to speak in his defence.